scholarly journals Discourses on im/migrants, ethnic minorities, and infectious disease: Fifty years of tuberculosis reporting in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 095269512110158
Author(s):  
Penelope Scott ◽  
Hella von Unger
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Health Reporting ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
New Public Health

Ethnicity and im/migrant classification systems and their constituent categories have a long history in the construction of public health knowledge on tuberculosis in the United Kingdom. This article critically examines the categories employed and the epidemiological discourses on TB, im/migrants, and ethnic minorities in health reporting between 1965 and 2015. We employ a Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse Analysis to trace the continuities and changes in the categories used and in the discursive construction of im/migrants, ethnic minorities, and TB. These continuities and disjunctures are analysed within their socio-historical context to demonstrate the historical contingency of epidemiological knowledge production. We outline two historical phases in knowledge construction. The first coincides with the period of decolonisation, which witnessed a change in discursive identity ascriptions from ‘immigrants’ to ‘ethnic groups’ in health reporting as the ‘other’. The second commenced after 1991, when the adoption of the census ethnicity categories as a standard in the collection of population statistics entrenched ethnicity categories in health reporting. We argue the health reporting discourse reveals that the ‘new’ public health exhibits continuities with the ‘old’ by targeting the immigrant ‘other’ through biosecuritisation practices. We contend that these categories originated within a postcolonial paradigm and that increasing immigration and new forms of mobility are creating the preconditions for new discourses on identity construction that have implications for the current collaborative TB strategy.

Opportunities and Challenges in Designing a Public Health Knowledge and Skills Curriculum for Refugee and Migrant Community Health Champions in the West Midlands, England (UK)

2020 ◽  
pp. 237337992095017
Author(s):  
Oliver Mudyarabikwa ◽  
Krishna Regmi ◽  
Sinead Ouillon ◽  
Raymond Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
The West ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
West Midlands

There has been much discussion recently about the potential of Community Health Champions (CHCs) to promote universal health coverage in the United Kingdom. Among refugee and migrant groups, there is concern that untrained community workers miss out on understanding the major causes of poor health outcomes. This study aims to examine the challenges and opportunities that influence the designing of an effective curriculum to help CHCs develop the necessary knowledge and skills. A qualitative evaluation of a collaborative public health curriculum with this primary objective, focused on aspiring CHCs drawn from refugee and migrant populations, was conducted. The 5-week curriculum was delivered as a community partnership between a local university, three metropolises, and three refugee and migrant centers, all located in the West Midlands, United Kingdom. We found no evidence of existing curriculums that target refugees and migrants to develop knowledge and skills for influencing health services utilization by individuals within their own community. It is an opportune time to introduce such a curriculum because health providers occasionally use CHCs for some roles in their activities. Important challenges in this curriculum concerned generating consensus on content, dealing with power structures in negotiating the content, and agreeing on boundaries in curriculum activities. There is evidence of CHCs from refugee and migrant backgrounds having an interest in developing skills for helping reduce health inequalities in the United Kingdom. This study concludes that significant challenges exist in designing a CHC curriculum that all stakeholders can easily accept, but not having consensus on content may be detrimental to their learning.

scholarly journals A unique measles B3 cluster in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands linked to air travel and transit at a large international airport, February to April 2014

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Nic Lochlainn ◽  
Sema Mandal ◽  
Rita de Sousa ◽  
Karthik Paranthaman ◽  
Rob van Binnendijk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Virus Strain ◽  
Measles Virus ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Uk ◽  
In Transit

This report describes a joint measles outbreak investigation between public health officials in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands following detection of a measles cluster with a unique measles virus strain. From 1 February to 30 April 2014, 33 measles cases with a unique measles virus strain of genotype B3 were detected in the UK and the Netherlands, of which nine secondary cases were epidemiologically linked to an infectious measles case travelling from the Philippines. Through a combination of epidemiological investigation and sequence analysis, we found that measles transmission occurred in flight, airport and household settings. The secondary measles cases included airport workers, passengers in transit at the same airport or travelling on the same flight as the infectious case and also household contacts. This investigation highlighted the particular importance of measles genotyping in identifying transmission networks and the need to improve vaccination, public health follow-up and management of travellers and airport staff exposed to measles.

scholarly journals Women in Medicine: Dr. Theresa Tam

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Dunbar-Lavoie
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Health Gain ◽  
Career Trajectory ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Health Officer ◽  
Chief Public Health Officer

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam (BMBS (UK), FRCPC) attended medical school in the United Kingdom before immigrating to Canada where she trained in pediatrics and specialized in infectious disease. She has maintained a ‘pourquoi pas’ attitude throughout her career that has helped her realize her vocation in public health, gain experience in the healthcare field—both around the globe and on Canadian soil—and advance into prominent leadership positions. Today, as Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, known colloquially as Canada’s Top Doctor, Dr. Tam has been thrust into the spotlight as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article outlines her exciting career trajectory and explores the challenges she faces while informing Canadians of guidelines for staying healthy during the pandemic.

scholarly journals Public health implications of influenza B outbreaks in closed settings in the United Kingdom in the 2007/08 influenza season

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Mook ◽  
J Ellis ◽  
J M Watson ◽  
CI Thompson ◽  
M Zambon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Burden Of Disease ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Influenza Season ◽  
Influenza B ◽  
Influenza A Viruses ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
The United Kingdom

Several influenza B outbreaks occurred in closed settings late in the 2007/08 influenza season (October to mid-May) in the United Kingdom (UK), with implications for public health management. Influenza B viruses usually circulate late in the season and cause a milder disease than influenza A viruses [1]. Epidemics of influenza B usually occur every two to three years with the burden of disease falling predominantly on school-aged children [2].

Cost–utility analysis of public health interventions

2019 ◽  
pp. 177-203
Author(s):  
Rhiannon T. Edwards ◽  
Eira Winrow
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cost Utility ◽  
Cost Utility Analysis ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related

This chapter builds upon Chapters 2 and 6 by introducing the reader to the history and concepts of health-related quality of life, cost–utility analysis, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and payer thresholds. The aim of this chapter is to outline in more depth the role of applied cost–utility analyses in the economic evaluation of public health interventions. The chapter goes on to reproduce a paper by Owen and colleagues at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom. This paper shows that many public health interventions often have a cost per QALY considerably lower than the £20,000 payer threshold conventionally used by NICE in the United Kingdom.

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